Computer software products are available in a myriad of areas. There are software products that keep a daily calendar, provide a phone book, provide tax preparation, have accounting information, receive and send electronic mail, do word processing, and so on. These software products may have a rich set of available functions which can overwhelm an initial or novice user. There are numerous shortcuts, editing aids, help functions, menus, etc., which are typically learned only through time by experimentation and continued usage. However, since a novice user may have sufficient difficulty just getting adjusted to the basics of a program, he/she may never want or be able to use some of the more sophisticated functions. In some cases, a novice user may become so overwhelmed with the available functions on a software product that the product may not be used at all or used on such a limited basis as to make it cost ineffective.
Traditionally, software is delivered to a customer with paper documentation (a manual) to describe the full functions of the product. Thus a novice user, or even a more experience user, may have to resort to a manual to understand how certain functions work and interact with other functions. A manual can be as overwhelming as the many features available on the software. Many users shy away from manuals because they may be difficult, as well as time-consuming to use.
Software packages may also be provided with help functions. Sometimes help functions are too little or too much. In an attempt to resolve this problem, it is known in the art to provide automatically adjustable help information. For example, when a software application is initially installed, it is assumed that the user is inexperienced and therefore, help functions are more detailed. As usage of the software increases, it is assumed that the user has learned the basics and therefore, the help information displayed becomes progressively less detailed.
While a paper documentation of software may always be necessary, it is not always desirable to need to refer to the paper documentation to learn about more advanced functions. Thus, there is a need for a method and apparatus which introduces more advanced functions of a software application as the user becomes more familiar with the basics of the application or as usage increases.